Introduction to Paul DiracPaul Dirac (1902 - 1984) was a very smart sensible Quantum Physicist.
This statistical interpretation is now universally accepted as the best possible interpretation for quantum mechanics, even though many 
people are unhappy with it. People had got used to the determinism of the last century, where the present determines the future completely, and they now have to get used to a different situation in which the present only gives one information of a statistical nature about the future. A good many people find this unpleasant; Einstein has always objected to it. The way he expressed it was: "The good God does not play with dice". Schroedinger also did not like the statistical interpretation and tried for many years to find an interpretation involving determinism for his waves. But it was not successful as a general method. I must say that I also do not like indeterminism. I have to accept it because it is certainly the best that we can do with our present knowledge. One can always hope that there will be future developments which will lead to a drastically different theory from the present quantum mechanics and for which there may be a partial return of determinism. However, so long as one keeps to the present formalism, one has to have this indeterminism.
(P.A.M. Dirac, "The Development Of Quantum Mechanics" Conferenza Tenuta il 14 Aprile 1972, in Roma, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1974)
Under construction - To be completed by late 2009
The central point is that the formalism of 'particles and fields in space-time' is the cause of confusion in Quantum Theory, and leads to the incorrect probability interpretation of the Quantum waves (rather than assuming real waves in Space).
Quantum Physics: Paul Dirac QuotesI must say that I am very dissatisfied with the situation, because this so called good theory does involve neglecting infinities which appear in its equations, neglecting them in an arbitrary way. This is just not sensible mathematics. Sensible mathematics involves neglecting a quantity when it turns out to be small - not neglecting it just because it is infinitely great and you do not want it! (Dirac, On Quantum Mechanics and Mathematics, 1937)
Richard Feynman was obviously also aware of this problem, and had this to say about renormalisation.
But no matter how clever the word, it is what I call a dippy process! Having to resort to such hocus pocus has prevented us from proving that the theory of quantum electrodynamics is mathematically self consistent. ... I suspect that renormalisation is not mathematically legitimate. (Richard Feynman, 1985)
Albert Einstein was also aware of this problem as he explains in his critique of Lorentz's electromagnetic field theory for electrons (as it is still the same fundamental problem of the particle / electromagnetic field duality).
The inadequacy of this point of view manifested itself in the necessity of assuming finite dimensions for the particles in order to prevent the electromagnetic field existing at their surfaces from becoming infinitely large.
(Albert Einstein, 1936)
Feynman's Spherical IN OUT wave theory is largely correct (and of course explains his success) but his error of using vector e-m waves resulted in infinities at the point particle as the radius tended to zero, and this led to the errors of renormalisation. In reality, Matter, as a structure of scalar spherical quantum waves, has a finite wave amplitude at the Wave-Center (as observed) and thus eliminates the infinities and the problems of renormalisation found in Feynman's Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). (See the Work of Wolff at QuantumMatter.com for a complete explanation.)
And Dirac is pretty spot on with this quote about Space / the Vacuum.
The problem of the exact description of vacuum, in my opinion, is the basic problem now before physics. Really, if you can’t correctly describe the vacuum, how it is possible to expect a correct description of something more complex?
The Wave Structure of Matter solves this problem by describing Space as a continuously connected wave medium. It is the waves in Space that give rise to our observations of matter.
Paul Dirac BiographyPaul Adrien Maurice Dirac, (August 8, 1902 - October 20, 1984) was a British theoretical physicist and a founder of the field of quantum physics.
Paul Dirac was born in the English city of Bristol. He studied electrical engineering at the University of Bristol, completing his degree in 1921. After working briefly as an engineer, Dirac decided that his true calling lay in the mathematical sciences. He completed a degree in mathematics at Bristol in 1923 and then received a grant to conduct research at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he would remain for most of his career. At Cambridge he became interested in the general theory of relativity and in the nascent field of quantum physics, and worked under the supervision of Ralph Fowler.
In 1926 he developed a version of quantum mechanics that incorporated the previous work of Werner Heisenberg on “Matrix Mechanics” and of Erwin Schrödinger on “Wave Mechanics” into a single mathematical formalism that associates measurable quantities with operators acting on the Hilbert space of vectors that describe the state of a physical system. For this seminal work he was awarded a Ph.D. from Cambridge.
In 1928, building on Pauli's work on nonrelativistic spin systems, he derived the Dirac equation, a relativistic equation describing the electron. This work led Dirac to predict the existence of the positron, the electron's antiparticle, which he interpreted in terms of what came to be called the Dirac sea. The positron was subsequently observed by Carl Anderson in 1932. Dirac also contributed to explaining the origin of quantum spin as a relativistic phenomenon.
Dirac's Principles of Quantum Mechanics, published in 1930 became one of the standard textbooks on the subject and is still used today. It introduced the Bra-ket notation, in which |ψ>, ket, denotes a state vector in the Hilbert space of a system and <ψ|, bra, its dual vector. <ψ|ψ> denotes an inner product. Dirac also introduced Dirac's delta function.
In 1931 Dirac showed that the existence of a single magnetic monopole in the universe would suffice to explain the observed quantization of electrical charge. This proposal received much attention but there is to date no convincing evidence for the existence of magnetic monopoles.
Paul Dirac shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1933 with Erwin Schrödinger "for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory." Dirac was Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge from 1932 to 1969. The Dirac Prize is awarded in his honour.
Dirac was a committed atheist. After being asked about his thoughts on Dirac's views, Pauli remarked "If I understand Dirac correctly, his meaning is this: there is no God, and Dirac is his Prophet".
Physics: Quantum Mechanics: Paul Dirac Biography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dirac
"When
forced to summarize the general theory of relativity in one sentence: Time
and space and gravitation have no separate existence from matter. ... Physical
objects are not in space, but these objects are spatially extended.
In this way the concept 'empty space' loses its meaning. ... The particle
can only appear as a limited region in space in which the field strength
or the energy density are particularly high. ...
The free, unhampered exchange of ideas and scientific conclusions
is necessary for the sound development of science, as it is in all spheres
of cultural life. ... We must not conceal from ourselves that no
improvement in the present depressing situation is possible without a severe
struggle; for the handful of those who are really determined to do something
is minute in comparison with the mass of the lukewarm and the misguided.
...
Humanity is going to need a substantially new way of thinking if
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Our world is in great trouble due to human behaviour
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change. We can now deduce
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in space. By understanding how we and everything around us are interconnected
in Space we can then deduce solutions to the fundamental problems of
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and ecology, politics
and society.
This is the profound new way of thinking that Einstein
realised, that we exist as spatially extended structures of the universe
- the discrete and separate body an illusion. This simply confirms the intuitions
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